The present invention relates to methods of operating vacuum processing equipment, which comprises wafer processing apparatus and wafer transport apparatus used in the processing of wafers and having at least two sets of processing units, and to methods of processing wafers using such vacuum processing equipment.
An example of conventional vacuum processing equipment is shown in, for example, Japanese Application Patent Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-133532 (1988). In the disclosed equipment, when samples are processed under the normal operational status of a system having wafer processing chambers connected to a wafer transport chamber, independent wafers can be simultaneously processed using independent processing chambers, or wafers can be sequentially processed via two or more processing chambers, and wafers can be transported for these purposes.
Another example of conventional vacuum processing relates to the methods of operating the equipment as shown in Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei-274746 (1991). In the disclosed methods, simultaneous processing is carried out via two routes, wherein maintenance operations are performed on the processing chamber included in one route and the processing chamber in the other route is transiently shared for twin-route processing.
Japanese Application Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei-67869 (1999) discloses still another example of operating methods relating to vacuum processing equipment that comprises multiple sets of processing apparatus, wherein a means for generating operational information signals indicating whether the corresponding processing apparatus is valid or invalid for operation is provided in each set of processing apparatus, and means is provided for storing its operational information signals into memory, along with an apparatus control means by which the operation of the equipment, based on memory-stored operational information signals, can be continued by activating only a valid processing apparatus, without using any invalid processing apparatus.
The abovementioned vacuum processing equipment shown in Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei-133532 (1988) and Japanese Application Patent Laid-open Publication No. Hei-274746 (1991), does not allow for the case wherein, for reasons such as trouble, either processing chamber cannot be used during the operation of the equipment using at least two processing chambers as processing routes, with the result that operation must be executed to implement continued processing with only normal processing chambers or the appropriate corrective actions must be taken to recover the equipment from such abnormality. Nor does the abovementioned equipment allow for the operating methods or procedures that are to be applied to preferentially execute interruption processing by first stopping temporarily the operation that uses at least two processing chambers as processing routes, and then using as processing routes the processing chambers that have not been used as processing routes up to that time, and to resume the temporarily stopped operation.
The operating methods disclosed in Japanese Application Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei-67869 (1999) relate to vacuum processing equipment that comprises multiple sets of apparatus for performing a succession of different processes on individual wafers, apparatus for transporting said wafers, and apparatus for controlling said processing apparatus sets and said control apparatus, has at least two sets of wafer processing routes including said processing apparatus sets, and processes wafers by performing said processes in parallel. These operating methods include the method of and/or the procedure for operating the equipment by using a normal set of processing chambers if any processing chambers exist that require repair prior to the start of operation. However, even if one set of processing chambers includes normal processing chambers, all processing chambers constituting the set are electrically disconnected.
For example, if processing chambers of the same type are connected in the above case, the availability of the equipment is low since no consideration is given to an operating method that enables operation to be continued using only normal processing chambers.
Neither the cleaning process for removing foreign matter from the processing equipment nor the aging process to be executed prior to wafer processing in order for the inside of the processing equipment to be set up for processing wafers is taken into account in terms of improvement in availability.
One object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum processing equipment operating method and wafer processing method by which, during the operation of the vacuum processing equipment using at least two sets of processing apparatus, even if either processing chamber cannot be used for reasons such as trouble, the availability of the equipment can be improved using only normal processing chambers as processing routes, without being restrained by any relationship of the processing units that constitute two sets of processing apparatus.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum processing equipment operating method and wafer processing method that will also enable availability to be improved during both cleaning and aging processes.
In order to achieve the foregoing objects, the present invention provides a method of operating vacuum processing equipment comprising multiple sets of apparatus for performing a succession of different processes on individual wafers, an apparatus for transporting said wafers, and an apparatus for controlling said processing apparatus sets and said control apparatus, and having at least two sets of wafer processing routes including said processing apparatus sets; wherein, as one feature thereof, the abovementioned vacuum processing equipment operating method makes it possible to judge whether each set of said processing apparatus for performing various processes is in a valid or invalid status for operation, to electrically disconnect only the processing apparatus whose operational status has been judged to be invalid, to reconstruct said processing routes by using the processing apparatus whose operational status has been judged to be valid, and to process said wafers by using only said processing apparatus which are valid for operation.
Another feature of the present invention is that two of the multiple sets of processing apparatus mentioned above further includes a primary wafer processing unit (for example, an etching unit) and a secondary wafer processing unit (for example, a postprocessing unit). In such a case, it is judged whether the status of each such processing unit is valid or invalid for operation, and if the secondary processing unit in one set of processing apparatus is judged to be invalid for operation, only that secondary processing unit will be electrically disconnected, whereby two sets of processing routes for performing said successive processes will be reconstructed using two primary processing units and one valid secondary processing unit, and said wafers will be processed using said two sets of processing routes.
Still another feature of the present invention is that in the abovementioned method of operating the vacuum processing equipment comprising multiple sets of apparatus for performing a succession of different processes on individual wafers, an apparatus for transporting said wafers, and an apparatus for controlling said processing apparatus sets and said control apparatus, it is possible to judge whether each processing unit in each set of said processing apparatus for performing various processes is in a valid or invalid status for operation, to judge whether wafers remaining unfinished are present in each processing unit if it is judged to be invalid for operation, and to select either of multiple sets of previously registered processing conditions if unfinished wafers are judged to be present, thereby to process said unfinished wafers in accordance with the assigned processing conditions.
Still another feature of the present invention is that in the abovementioned method of operating the vacuum processing equipment comprising multiple sets of apparatus for performing a succession of different processes on individual wafers, an apparatus for transporting said wafers, and an apparatus for controlling said processing apparatus sets and said control apparatus, when automatic operation is to be started following the assignment of automatic operating conditions for performing said processes, it is possible to specify either the parallel processing routes intended to transport wafers after fixing multiple combinations of pairings between a cassette and a processing chamber, or the processing routes intended for transporting wafers to an idle processing chamber without fixing the relationship between a cassette and a processing chamber.
Still another feature of the present invention is that in the vacuum processing equipment operating method to be applied to process wafers using at least two sets of processing apparatus in an equipment arrangement comprising multiple sets of apparatus for processing said wafers, an apparatus for transporting said wafers, and an apparatus for controlling said processing apparatus sets and said transport apparatus, before the processing of the wafers in the aforementioned cassette is started, two dummy wafers are transported to two sets of processing apparatus and undergo parallel aging.
Still another feature of the present invention is that in the method of processing wafers by operating vacuum processing equipment comprising multiple sets of apparatus for performing a succession of different processes on individual wafers, an apparatus for transporting said wafers, and an apparatus for controlling said processing apparatus sets and said control apparatus, and having at least two sets of wafer processing routes including said processing apparatus sets, it is possible to judge whether each set of said processing apparatus for performing various processes is in a valid or invalid status for operation, to electrically disconnect only the processing apparatus whose operational status has been judged to be invalid, to reconstruct said processing routes by using the processing apparatus whose operational status has been judged to be valid, and to process said wafers by using only said processing apparatus valid for operation.
According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a vacuum processing equipment operating method and wafer processing method by which, during the operation of the vacuum processing equipment using at least two sets of processing apparatus, even if either processing chamber cannot be used for reasons such as trouble, the availability of the equipment can be improved using only normal processing chambers as processing routes, without being restrained by any relationship of the processing units that constitute two sets of processing apparatus.
The vacuum processing equipment operating method and wafer processing method that enable the availability of the equipment can also be provided for cleaning and aging processes.